Upstate Medical graduate sued in Texas after giving Covid vaccines to expire

A Texas doctor who graduated from Upstate Medical University in Syracuse has been fired, according to the New York Times, and charged with theft after administering Covid vaccines that would expire within hours.

The doctor, Hasan Gokal (48), emigrated from Pakistan to the USA as a boy and obtained his medical degree at Upstate. He worked at hospitals in central New York, according to the Times, before moving to Texas in 2009.

He worked at hospitals there before becoming medical director for the Harris County Covid Response Team in County County earlier this year.

The province operated a vaccination clinic in December that was mostly intended for emergency service workers. Gokal was there to supervise, but the turnout was small.

Late in the day, an individual shows up and a worker breaks the seal on a new 11-dose vial. It was unlikely that enough people would show up at that point to use the remaining doses, and Gokal was determined not to waste it, according to the Times.

Eventually, he tracked down enough people through his phone’s contact list. The recipients included a woman in her 80s with dementia, a man in his 60s with health problems, a mother with a child using a ventilator and Gokal’s own wife, who has a lung condition that makes her vulnerable for Covid.

Although he informed his supervisors about what he was doing at the time and submitted all the proper paperwork, he was fired, according to the Times, a few days later. Officials told him he should have returned the doses to the country or thrown them away.

He was later charged with theft, although a judge dismissed the case as unfounded. The local district attorney plans to present the case to a grand jury.

According to Gokal’s lawyer, his client acted responsibly according to the Times.

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